Count your cost!

A draftsperson, or architect, is hired when you need to design something with a personal touch or untypical designs. Reality is where do you go when you need a set of plans. Drafting services (old school is by hand) are now connected with CAD services. CAD means Computer Aided Drafting and that is refering to the software that drafting company will use to make their drawings. Examples are AutoCad, Chief Architect.

A typical (package) plan for houses, buildings, and certain projects, can be bought without needing to hire a draftsperson individually. But if you want to customize the house, building, or commercial building that is not included in pre-drawn plans you will have to have it drawn up by a qualified professional whether an experienced draftsperson, a licensed architect or licensed engineer.

ALSO each County and State has building codes that apply to construction in that area and in order to get a building permit you will need the plans to be brought to that agencies standard. All these different parts involve research, planning and understanding. Thus if you want a bargin price you will get bargin service. If you want a complete, quality and full service than don't go with the bargin price. We try very hard give you a complete price and do the best that we can. It is difficult for us to work with the various agencies and we don't recommend a client try to save money by doing it themselves.

With that said architects, engineers and draftspersons differ in that, structural plans drawn up by a draftsperson will still need to be signed off by an architect and/or structural engineer before they can be approved for construction, building permit approval and/or special inspection. Years of dealing with this STILL confuse us, but we will not pass that cost on to you. WHY? Because that is not fair to you the customer.

What is in a set of plans

Majority of all drawings are now done on a system called CAD (Computer Aided Design) depending on where you live. This depends on technology because on the Big Island (Hawaii) some companies/individuals still do hand drafting, while in Honolulu, Oahu the standard is CAD. Now while it has made certain drawings a lot less expensive and much more accurate than older systems. The cost of a drawing is still determined by the type of drawing you want and the size.

Different types of drawings will include:

Floor Plans – This an overhead view of each floor in the building. Sometimes called a footprint. Best way to envision this is like looking at a maze from above. Most clients don't realize how important this part is as it will determine structural issues and framing details.

Elevation Plans – a 2-dimensional view of the building from the perspective standing in front or at the side of proposed building. It lists the total height of the building and the height of each floor, doors, and windows.

Section Plans – This is similar to floor plan, but the sections of the building are cut vertically, showing staircase designs or details, room heights, interior door heights, metal braces, etc.

Perspective Plans – a 3-D view of the exterior of a building (This will add major cost in Hawaii as not many companies and individuals do 3D). There are many types available now. We have several resources to produce this type of rendering, however again please note that it is costly.

Average CAD Service Costs

(taken directly from costowl.com)

A typical drafting company will charge $100 to $120 per hour. Architects charge slightly more, averaging around $130 per hour. A typical drawing of one type of a house will take about 8 hours to complete, which would cost between $800 and $1,040.

Larger structures, such as a municipal building or an office complex, may take up to 24 hours to complete. More intricate drawings are required due to codes. Sprinkler systems, mechanical and HVAC drawings are required. Expect to pay upwards of $3,000 for these types of drawings. Remember that these prices are for one type of drawing. If you require a floor plan, elevation plan and a section plan, these costs will triple.

Part of the information on this page is taken from http://costowl.com, and the input of various local licensed contractors and professionals. The BOTTOM line, is you get what you pay for. A Bargin price can equal to Bargin product, service and/or end result. Fair, Accurate and Complete is our goal.

Business online referral

Accent Design Services created our house from a general idea of what we wanted. They did an amazing job of creating exactly what we wanted even before we knew we wanted it. But that was only the beginning; they stayed with us for help and consultation until we passed our final inspection. They went over and above many times to help out and I'm confident that, even now, we could contact them and they would either help us or find someone who could. Although we don't foresee building another house, if we did we wouldn't go anywhere else! Read more...